“I don’t know if that’s something I can give her,” I answer honestly. Sharing her with these guys was hard enough at first. Bringing in the man that betrayed her isn’t something I think I can do.
“She’s going to eventually go after what she wants, and that’s Zane,” Dex says impatiently. “You might want to wrap your thick head around it now.”
“Why are you suddenly okay with this?”
“Since I talked to her about it. I would do anything to keep that girl.”
“Are you saying I won’t?” I ask angrily.
“Will you quit putting words in my fucking mouth? I’m justwarning you now that if Les ever came to me and said she wanted to try with him. I wouldn’t tell her no.”
“I can’t, man,” I say gruffly. “I saw what he did to her.”
“And something tells me he regrets that decision.” He shrugs. “We’ve all done shit we regret. His is hurting Les.”
I pull into a vacant lot, throwing the car in park to wait for Les’ call. Laying my head back on the seat, I think back to her finding out.
She was hurt, but she was covering it up with anger. She didn’t know I could hear her crying at night when I would stay over, and I never brought it up. She cut him entirely out of her life and never would give him the chance to explain, and something tells me that’s her regret. I watched the girl I loved for a fucking year sneak around with that asshole, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it; I was too big of a coward then to tell her how I felt.
I’m not that boy anymore, and I’ll be goddamned if he gets in between us again.
“It’s been too long,”I tell Dex after we haven’t heard from Les and Gage in over two hours. It should have taken them an hour to drop Nina off with Zane and call us. I texted them both over thirty minutes ago, and still no answer. I probably wouldn’t have been as worried, but we got a call from Mani that said a creepy doll was dropped off at the front gate earlier. The doll was tied inside a box and looked eerily like Les. There was also a folder filled with pictures that reminded us her stalker is still watching her every move.
“You think they snuck off somewhere?” Dex asks with a chuckle.
Gage was pissed as hell when he found out about the beach house, so I shrug. “Could have, but I think she would message one of us with everything going on.”
“We didn’t,” he reminds me.
I jerk the car into drive and turn toward the direction they were meeting Zane. “I can’t shake this feeling, man. Somethings wrong.”
Dex nods. “Should we call Holden?”
I shake my head because there’s no use in worrying anyone else; they’re probably sleeping. “Nah. Let’s check the meeting spot and figure it out from there.”
We drive quietly to the meeting spot less than ten minutes away, with no sign of them or foul play.
“I’m telling you, Gage is balls deep in her somewhere,” Dex jokes.
I want to agree and chalk it up to being away from Les, but something is gnawing at my stomach. I got a text from the pilot earlier that he had Nina, so I know that part is taken care of. If Gage snuck her away and didn’t tell me, I’ll kick his ass.
We drive up and down the road they may have taken, seeing nothing. She’s supposed to call to tell us where to meet her, so everything is kept a surprise, so I have no fucking clue where they would have been going.
“I don’t fucking like this,” I finally say, dialing Holden.
“Hello,” he answers groggily, and I feel like shit for waking him up. He isn’t used to these missions that sometimes keep us up for over forty-eight hours.
“Hey,Bello, I need you to track Gage and Les.”
“What’s wrong?” he asks, instantly alert.
“Maybe nothing,” I assure him. “I might be being a paranoid dick, but we haven’t heard from them in over two hours.”
I hear rustling and then a door opening. “I’m going downstairs,” he says, and I can tell he’s jogging. I listen to him open his office door and keys clicking. I try to stay patient while he taps away, but I can feel the edge of panic creeping up. “Ryder,” he says quietly. “They aren’t together.”
I jerk the car to a stop on the side of the road and look at Dex. “What do you mean?”
“They’re firing up in two different spots. Hold on,” he says, and I can hear the tapping intensify. “Gage’s phone is like two miles from you.” I stomp the gas and ignore the beeping of the horn from the car I just pulled out in front of. He rattles off the streets to turn down. “Right there!”
